A Reassessment of the Role of Ethnicity in Children's Social Perception

This study examines the salience of ethnicity in 8- and 11-year-old children's social categorizations and preference judgements. Unlike previous research, children were afforded the possibility of responding to photographs of target persons on the basis of either individual characteristics (expressed affect) or group characteristics (ethnicity and gender), and it was found that ethnicity was seldom used as a basis for categorizing persons, nor was it widely implicated in judgements of preference. Since this study was conducted in an area virtually devoid of ethnic minority groups, a replication was undertaken in an inner city area of London. Apart from the finding that ethnicity appeared to be a fairly salient basis for categorization amongst the 8-year-old children, results essentially similar to those of the first study were obtained. Implications of the data for children's social perception are discussed.